Market Research and Index Publications

Research databases, historical return publications, and predecessor index products used in market and portfolio analysis.

Market research sources differ from market indexes. A database such as Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) supplies security-level and index data for research. Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation is a historical return publication, while World Equity Benchmark Series identifies predecessor country-index investment products.

Before using a series, record the provider, security universe, return definition, frequency, currency, tax treatment, sample period, revisions, delisting treatment, and whether the history is live or reconstructed. A licensed product, an index, a research database, and a published return table are different objects even when they use similar market labels.

Historical analysis is sensitive to survivorship, look-ahead bias, stale prices, methodology changes, and mismatched return series. Research material is educational evidence, not a personalized investment recommendation or performance promise.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation

Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation was a long-running U.S. capital-market data series and annual yearbook used to compare historical asset-class returns.

World Equity Benchmark Shares (WEBS)

World Equity Benchmark Shares were MSCI country-index exchange-traded funds launched in 1996 and folded into the iShares MSCI fund line in 2000.

Browse Investing